The filmmaking career of Carmelo Bene (1937 - 2002) lasted from 1968 to 1973, six years out of a lengthy time spent in the theater that made Bene one of the most celebrated figures of the Italian avant-garde in the second half of the 20th century.
The filmmaking career of Carmelo Bene (1937 - 2002) lasted from 1968 to 1973, six years out of a lengthy time spent in the theater that made Bene one of the most celebrated figures of the Italian avant-garde in the second half of the 20th century.
Bene first made a name for himself with a controversial production of Camus’ Caligula in Rome in 1959. Subsequent productions retained this sense of notoriety, and Bene (like Pasolini) quickly acquired a police record. Bene, however, would come to bemoan the controversy his work created, because it attracted an audience looking for shocks and titillation, while he himself was more concerned with reinventing the vocabulary of the theater: sets, gestures, texts.
Bene’s turn to cinema expanded that quest to reinvent. His films resist synopsis because, although they are often derived from narrative sources, Bene uses these sources against themselves and as a springboard for his critique of the stultifying traps of representation and interpretation. The films are wildly inventive and visually arresting on several levels: the performance styles of his actors, including eccentric movements, gestures and grimaces; the sets, costumes and makeup; the editing; and the use of the camera, with stable shots regularly punctuated by handheld camera work, extreme close ups and the occasional baroque use of zooms, dollies, cranes, elaborate pans and exaggerated camera angles. They resemble something like the work of Jack Smith crossed with the experimental Pasolini of Teorema and Pigsty.
One constant feature of Bene’s work is its satire of heterosexuality. The two sexes keep trying to communicate with each other, but always fail to do so. Bene’s work constantly deflates masculinist pretenses at mastery: his male characters tend to be hapless and often hysterical, while his female characters are alternately predatory and remote, and unknowable in either case. But this satire is merely the most visible form of Bene’s revolt against convention and communication. Over and over again in the films, everyday actions become hopelessly complicated or endlessly interrupted. His characters often end up staring quizzically offscreen or even into mirrors, as if they were no more sure than we are of the meaning of what they see. Indeed, identity and by extension agency seem to get suspended, along with meaning. What is left is glorious spectacle and enigmas for the eyes and ears: endless music; babbling, stuttering text; excessive and exciting images. – David Pendleton
External links
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/nm0070644
Wikipedia: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q982519
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Filmography (Movies)
La parte maledetta. Viaggio ai confini del teatro - Carmelo Bene
Character:Himself (archive footage)
Release Date:01/09/2024
È severamente vietata la sosta in palcoscenico ai non autorizzati. Un documentario di meno su Carmelo Bene
Character:Himself (archive footage)
Release Date:01/08/2024
BENE! Vita di Carmelo, la macchina attoriale
Character:
Release Date:20/12/2022
Tracce di Bene
Character:Self
Release Date:26/10/2017
Lorenzaccio, al di là di de Musset e Benedetto Varchi
Character:
Release Date:01/09/2003
Necro not(to b)e
Character:Sé stesso
Release Date:15/08/2003
Otello o la deficienza della donna
Character:
Release Date:18/03/2002
Pinocchio, ovvero lo spettacolo della Provvidenza
Character:Pinocchio / Geppetto / Mastro Ciliegia / Grillo Parlante / Mangiafuoco / Volpe / Lucignolo
Release Date:29/05/1999
Voce dei Canti
Character:
Release Date:01/12/1998
Macbeth Horror Suite
Character:
Release Date:05/04/1997
In-vulnerabilità d'Achille (tra Sciro e Ilio)
Character:
Release Date:01/01/1997
Canti Orfici
Character:Himself
Release Date:01/08/1996
Ai Rotoli
Character:Self
Release Date:01/01/1996
Carmelo Bene: Uno contro tutti
Character:
Release Date:26/06/1994
Cos'è il teatro?!
Character:Himself
Release Date:12/12/1990
Hommelette for Hamlet, operetta inqualificabile (da J. Laforgue)
Character:Amleto
Release Date:25/11/1990
L'Adelchi di Alessandro Manzoni in forma di concerto
Character:
Release Date:09/09/1985
Le tecniche dell'assenza
Character:Self
Release Date:01/01/1984
Manfred, versione per concerto in forma di oratorio
Character:
Release Date:12/09/1983
La poesia dimenticata
Character:
Release Date:01/01/1982
Riccardo III
Character:Riccardo III
Release Date:07/12/1981
Modi di vivere - Giorgio Colli. Una conoscenza per cambiare la vita
Character:
Release Date:01/01/1980
Amleto di Carmelo Bene (da Shakespeare a Laforgue)
Character:Amleto
Release Date:21/04/1978
Bene! Quattro diversi modi di morire in versi: Majakovskij-Blok-Esènin-Pasternak
Character:
Release Date:27/10/1977
Claro
Character:
Release Date:20/11/1975
One Hamlet Less
Character:Hamlet
Release Date:21/11/1973
Ventriloquio
Character:Jean des Esseintes
Release Date:01/05/1973
Salomé
Character:Erode Antipa / Onorio
Release Date:20/10/1972
Tre nel mille
Character:Pannocchia
Release Date:06/03/1971
Necropolis
Character:Man with leather jacket
Release Date:01/11/1970
Don Giovanni
Character:Don Giovanni
Release Date:14/05/1970
Red Hot Shot
Character:Billy Desco
Release Date:31/03/1970
Capricci
Character:Poet
Release Date:15/11/1969
Umano non umano
Character:Self
Release Date:07/05/1969
Our Lady of the Turks
Character:The Protagonist
Release Date:03/09/1968
Il barocco leccese
Character:Voice over
Release Date:01/06/1968
Hermitage
Character:The Man
Release Date:01/01/1968
Catch As Catch Can
Character:Prete
Release Date:26/10/1967
Oedipus Rex
Character:Creon
Release Date:07/09/1967
Carmelo Bene, il canto d'amore di Alfred J. Prufrock
Character:
Release Date:10/07/1967
Bis
Character:
Release Date:01/01/1966
Un'ora prima di Amleto, più Pinocchio
Character:Himself
Release Date:01/01/1965
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